What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

Just curious on what applications there are available for all these extra keys manufacturers keep placing on keyboards, thankfully my keyboard only has a few extra and they aren't in the way. I've been using LinEAK for a while now but it doesn't seem to be maintained any more so I was wondering if there are any better alternatives.

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

Actually, many of them do not receive a keycode at the kernel level, thus apps like xbindkeys, lineakd and keytouch are unable to configure them. You need to use loadkeys to make them discoverable. Afterwards xbindkeys is my preferred way. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hotkeys

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

mucknert wrote:

It depends. I can access all my extra keys using xbindkeys. Might work for you aswell. :)

patroclo7 wrote:

Actually, many of them do not receive a keycode at the kernel level, thus apps like xbindkeys, lineakd and keytouch are unable to configure them. You need to use loadkeys to make them discoverable. Afterwards xbindkeys is my preferred way. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hotkeys

I just tried xbindkeys and it works flawlessly! Thanks a lot, I'm going to remove LinEAK now and use it instead.

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

patroclo7: i read your wiki entry and thank you thank you thank you for clearing up much of my confusion regarding this subject. one thing i'm wondering about though is that this stuff is so hard... i have a regular ibm keyboard with some extra keys to control cd and volume ++, won't the keyboard send some signal through it's line each time one presses a key and why is it so hard for the computer to "see" that signal??

because showkey -s doesn't give me anything... and so it's no hope?

KISS = "It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience." - Albert Einstein

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

The keys which are not seen often operate at a pre-os level also when you use the preinstalled os: they raise the volume, switch off-on the wireless signal and so on calling directly the hardware or resorting to bios. Thus, sometimes they work also in linux (e.g. my wireless switch is not seen by the linux kernel but is actually able to switch on-off the signal). Not always however: why? Perhaps because some os-function actually controls that same bios setting or hardware, preventing external callings.

It happens also that the linux kernel simply does not see the key, also when it should: the variety of hotkeys in laptops' keyboards is really huge.

Anyway, when the key has no scancode, I am pretty sure that you should give up.

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

Hmm.. even though xbindkeys is working fine here it doesn't seem to launch properly in my startup script for openbox. Right before the exec openbox line I added "xbindkeys &", sure enough it had started as I could see it in ps output, but it didn't respond to my keys. Killing it and starting it again took care of it, any idea what's going on?

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

[vEX] wrote:

Hmm.. even though xbindkeys is working fine here it doesn't seem to launch properly in my startup script for openbox. Right before the exec openbox line I added "xbindkeys &", sure enough it had started as I could see it in ps output, but it didn't respond to my keys. Killing it and starting it again took care of it, any idea what's going on?

I think the & after `xbindkeys' is redundant, it goes into background by itself. Not sure if that's the problem though.

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

I have it in my .xinitrc before my "exec dwm" and it works. Double check your script and verify that the process is actually not running (just to exclude other problems, such as openbox grabbing those same keys).

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

Well, there is a xbindkeys process running after Openbox has started, but it isn't until I kill it and start a new one that it starts reading my keys. I should probably and some more info; I don't use startx, but GDM instead and have a shell script that launches a few applications (conky, numlockx, feh) and they all work fine. I just checked the wiki though and they seem to want me to launch the script which starts my applications after openbox is running. I guess I'll try that and see if it works better.

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

Unfortunally it didn't help either and I'm clueless on what's the problem since xbindkeys is started. I would have guess that openbox was listening to the keys, but since the last approach was the one above (launch it after openbox) I'm not so sure that applies.

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

I use Xmodmap to get the keys to work...then just assign them actions throuhg the global shortcuts in applicationsIf youre not gettign any codes, dmesg or xev, turn of the computer switch to the PS/2 port youre using USB to connect the keyboard, USB hid driver hasnt got the functionality to give those extra keys scancodes and the devs dont seem willing to do anything about it...Follow the wiki hotkyes instructions and you cant go wrong, someone posted link to them earlier.

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

con wrote:

I use Xmodmap to get the keys to work...then just assign them actions throuhg the global shortcuts in applicationsIf youre not gettign any codes, dmesg or xev, turn of the computer switch to the PS/2 port youre using USB to connect the keyboard, USB hid driver hasnt got the functionality to give those extra keys scancodes and the devs dont seem willing to do anything about it...Follow the wiki hotkyes instructions and you cant go wrong, someone posted link to them earlier.

Not wanting to sound rude, but if you had even bothered to read the thread you would have seen that the keys are working fine with xbindkeys, it's the process of autostarting xbindkeys with openbox that doesn't work.

However, I've now started using the built in keybind function in openbox, though for some reason I can't execute mpc commands (ie: mpc stop), it just won't work. Instead I have to use Sonata (ie: sonata stop), could the reason be that mpc outputs info while Sonata does not when you use those commands?

EDIT: It wasn't, I added the --no-status switch but it still won't work with mpc.

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

[vEX] wrote:

con wrote:

I use Xmodmap to get the keys to work...then just assign them actions throuhg the global shortcuts in applicationsIf youre not gettign any codes, dmesg or xev, turn of the computer switch to the PS/2 port youre using USB to connect the keyboard, USB hid driver hasnt got the functionality to give those extra keys scancodes and the devs dont seem willing to do anything about it...Follow the wiki hotkyes instructions and you cant go wrong, someone posted link to them earlier.

Not wanting to sound rude, but if you had even bothered to read the thread you would have seen that the keys are working fine with xbindkeys, it's the process of autostarting xbindkeys with openbox that doesn't work.

However, I've now started using the built in keybind function in openbox, though for some reason I can't execute mpc commands (ie: mpc stop), it just won't work. Instead I have to use Sonata (ie: sonata stop), could the reason be that mpc outputs info while Sonata does not when you use those commands?

EDIT: It wasn't, I added the --no-status switch but it still won't work with mpc.

Actually i read every post in this thread before posting, sorry if came of sounding mean (sv:elak) or something. Thought you just wanted to know what apps ppl were using to get multimedia keys to work (alot of ppl seem to be having problems with this), didnt realize that you wanted help. Maybe choose a better title if you dont want too confuse ppl like me. Again sorry:)

Re: What application do you use for extra/multimedia keys on the keyboard?

Appologies for dragging this back from the dead, but did you ever get this issue solved?

I have tried autostarting xbindkeys in Gnome and Openbox (in the autostart.sh) and it just won't work. If I run 'xbindkeys' from a terminal after this it is fine. Xbindkeys is definately running in the first case, it just isn't working.